 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
| Turnout | 73.73% | |||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||||||||||||||||||
 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 17 November 2005. Nominations were accepted on 7 September 2005 and electoral participation was 73.73%. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa of the governing United People's Freedom Alliance was elected, receiving 50.3% of all votes cast.
At first, there was doubt whether the election would be held at all. President Chandrika Kumaratunga had called the 1999 election one year ahead of schedule; she argued that the extra year should be appended to her second term, and filed suit to do this. The Supreme Court of Sri Lanka rejected her claims and the election went ahead.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa quickly emerged as the candidate for the Sri Lanka Freedom Party and Ranil Wickremesinghe for the United National Party. Both candidates tried to round up the support of minor parties. Rajapaksa needed to re-assemble the alliance with the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna that existed at the parliamentary level (the United People's Freedom Alliance). After he agreed to reject federalism and renegotiate the ceasefire with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya endorsed him.
After that, Wickremasinghe's only real hope of victory was through the support of the island's ethnic minorities, given his generally more conciliatory stance on the ethnic issue. He secured the endorsement of the main Muslim party, the Sri Lanka Muslim Congress, and the Ceylon Workers' Congress representing the estate Tamils. He could not, however, obtain the backing of the main Sri Lankan Tamil party, the Tamil National Alliance. Wickremasinghe's hopes for victory were effectively dashed when the LTTE ordered Tamil voters, most of whom would likely have voted for him, to boycott the polls.
Economic issues also worked to Rajapaksa's favour. Sri Lanka had enjoyed strong growth under Wickremasinghe's free-market policies when he was prime minister from 2001 to 2004, but he had also pursued controversial privatizations which Rajapaksa promised to halt. Rajapaksa also promised a policy of economic nationalism.
| Candidate | Party | Votes | % | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mahinda Rajapaksa | Sri Lanka Freedom Party | 4,887,152 | 50.29 | |
| Ranil Wickremesinghe | United National Party | 4,706,366 | 48.43 | |
| Siritunga Jayasuriya | United Socialist Party | 35,425 | 0.36 | |
| A. A. Suraweera | National Development Front | 31,238 | 0.32 | |
| Victor Hettigoda | United Lanka People's Party | 14,458 | 0.15 | |
| Chamil Jayaneththi | New Left Front | 9,296 | 0.10 | |
| Aruna de Soyza | Ruhuna People's Party | 7,685 | 0.08 | |
| Wimal Geeganage | Sri Lanka National Front | 6,639 | 0.07 | |
| Anura de Silva | United Lalith Front | 6,357 | 0.07 | |
| Ajith Arachchige | Democratic Unity Alliance | 5,082 | 0.05 | |
| Wije Dias | Socialist Equality Party | 3,500 | 0.04 | |
| Nelson Perera | Sri Lanka Progressive Front | 2,525 | 0.03 | |
| Hewaheenipellage Dharmadwaja | United National Alternative Front | 1,316 | 0.01 | |
| Total | 9,717,039 | 100.00 | ||
| Valid votes | 9,717,039 | 98.88 | ||
| Invalid/blank votes | 109,739 | 1.12 | ||
| Total votes | 9,826,778 | 100.00 | ||
| Registered voters/turnout | 13,327,160 | 73.73 | ||
| Source: Election Commission | ||||
Official district-by-district results of the election are listed below: [1]
| Districts won by Rajapaksa |
| Districts won by Wickremesinghe |
| District | Province | Rajapaksa | percentage | Wickremesinghe | percentage | Others | percentage | Turnout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Colombo | Western | 534,431 | 47.96% | 569,627 | 51.12% | 10,192 | 0.92% | 76.75% |
| Gampaha | Western | 596,698 | 54.78% | 481,764 | 44.23% | 10,815 | 0.99% | 80.71% |
| Kalutara | Western | 341,693 | 55.48% | 266,043 | 43.20% | 8,124 | 1.32% | 81.43% |
| Mahanuwara | Central | 315,672 | 44.30% | 387,150 | 54.33% | 9,798 | 1.37% | 79.65% |
| Matale | Central | 120,533 | 48.09% | 125,937 | 50.25% | 4,150 | 1.66% | 79.04% |
| Nuwara Eliya | Central | 99,550 | 27.97% | 250,428 | 70.37% | 5,897 | 1.66% | 80.78% |
| Galle | Southern | 347,223 | 58.41% | 239320 | 40.26% | 7,925 | 1.33% | 81.94% |
| Matara | Southern | 279411 | 61.85% | 165827 | 36.71% | 6,484 | 1.44% | 80.96% |
| Hambantota | Southern | 202,918 | 63.43% | 112,712 | 35.23% | 4,295 | 1.34% | 81.41% |
| Jaffna | Northern | 1,967 | 25.00% | 5,523 | 70.20% | 1,034 | 4.8% | 1.21% |
| Vanni | Northern | 17,197 | 20.36% | 65,798 | 77.89% | 2,879 | 1.75% | 34.30% |
| Batticaloa | Eastern | 28,836 | 18.87% | 121,514 | 79.51% | 4,265 | 1.62% | 48.51% |
| Digamadulla | Eastern | 122,329 | 42.88% | 159,198 | 55.81% | 6,681 | 1.31% | 72.7% |
| Trincomalee | Eastern | 55,680 | 37.04% | 92,197 | 61.33% | 4,551 | 1.63% | 63.84% |
| Kurunegala | North Western | 468,507 | 52.56% | 418,809 | 46.72% | 17,639 | 0.72% | 80.51% |
| Puttalam | North Western | 160,686 | 48.14% | 169,264 | 50.71% | 3,833 | 1.15% | 71.68% |
| Anuradhapura | North Central | 231,040 | 55.08% | 182,956 | 42.62% | 5,438 | 2.3% | 78.98% |
| Polonnaruwa | North Central | 110,499 | 52.61% | 97,142 | 46.25% | 2,389 | 1.14% | 80.43% |
| Badulla | Uva | 192,734 | 45.18% | 226,582 | 53.11% | 7,283 | 1.71% | 81.29% |
| Monaragala | Uva | 126,094 | 56.94% | 92,244 | 41.65% | 3,112 | 1.41% | 81.16% |
| Ratnapura | Sabaragamuwa | 294,260 | 53.01% | 252,838 | 45.55% | 7,976 | 1.44% | 83.89% |
| Kegalle | Sabaragamuwa | 239,184 | 51.02% | 223,483 | 47.67% | 6,106 | 1.31% | 81.19% |
Sri Lanka is a semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the President of Sri Lanka is both head of state and head of government, and it relies on a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet of Ministers. Legislative power is vested in the Parliament. For decades, the party system was dominated by the socialist Sri Lanka Freedom Party and the conservative United National Party. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature.
Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the fifth President of Sri Lanka, from 12 November 1994 to 19 November 2005. The country's first and only female president to date and the country's second female prime minister. She is the daughter of two former prime ministers and was the leader of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) until the end of 2005.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 2 April 2004. The ruling United National Party of Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was defeated, winning only eighty two seats in the 225-member Sri Lankan parliament. The opposition United People's Freedom Alliance won 105 seats. While this was eight seats short of an absolute majority, the Alliance was able to form a government.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 December 2001, just a little over a year after the previous elections in October 2000.
Mahinda Rajapaksa is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2004 and 2018 to 2019, and the Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2015 and 2019 to 2021. He has been a Member of Parliament (MP) for Kurunegala since 2015.
The United People's Freedom Alliance was a political alliance in Sri Lanka founded by former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004 and dissolved by former Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena in 2019.
The Sri Lanka Freedom Party is one of the major and most well known political parties in Sri Lanka. It was founded by S.W.R.D Bandaranaike in 1951 and, since then, has been one of the two largest parties in the Sri Lankan political arena. It first came to power in 1956 and since then has been the predominant party in government on a number of occasions. The party is generally considered as having a democratic socialist or progressive economic agenda and is often associated with nationalist Sinhalese parties. The party follows a Non-Aligned foreign policy but always had close ties to socialist nations.
The United National Front (UNF) later the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG) is a political alliance in Sri Lanka led by the United National Party.
Maithripala Yapa Sirisena is a Sri Lankan politician who served as the seventh President of Sri Lanka from 9 January 2015 to 18 November 2019. Sirisena is Sri Lanka's first president from the North Central Province of the country and does not belong to the traditional Sri Lankan political elite. He is currently a member of parliament from Polonnaruwa.
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 26 January 2010. The elections were announced on 23 November 2009 when incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa decided to seek a fresh mandate prior to the expiration of his term in 2011. Nominations were accepted on 17 December 2009.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 and 20 April 2010, to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 14th Parliament. 14,088,500 Sri Lankans were eligible to vote in the election at 11,102 polling stations. It was the first general election to be held in Sri Lanka following the conclusion of the civil war which lasted 26 years.
Tiran Alles, MP is a Sri Lankan businessman and politician. He is a current member of Parliament of Sri Lanka and the Minister of Public Security. Alles had entered politics as an ally of former General Sarath Fonseka and a member of parliament for Fonseka's Democratic National Alliance in 2010. Leaving parliament in 2015, he returned as a member of Mahinda Rajapaksa's Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna and the leader of the United People's Party in 2020 and became a minister in 2022.
Vasudeva Nanayakkara is a Sri Lankan left-wing politician, Member of Parliament and a former presidential candidate.
The All Ceylon Makkal Congress is a registered political party in Sri Lanka. It was founded in 2005 by Rishad Bathiudeen. The All Ceylon Makkal Congress is a member of the United National Front for Good Governance (UNFGG).
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 8 January 2015, two years ahead of schedule. The incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa was the United People's Freedom Alliance's candidate, seeking a third term in office. The United National Party (UNP)-led opposition coalition chose to field Maithripala Sirisena, the former Minister of Health in Rajapaksa's government and general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) – the main constituent party of the UPFA – as its common candidate.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 17 August 2015, ten months ahead of schedule, to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 15th Parliament.
The Joint Opposition was a political alliance formed by a faction of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) alongside several of the major quasi-left-wing parties of Sri Lanka. It was once the largest opposition group in the Sri Lankan Parliament. It was formed after the two major parties, the SLFP and the United National Party (UNP) forming a unity government, leading to a great degree of discontent amongst many SLFP members, who then went on to form the Joint Opposition alongside other parties from the United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA). It aims to give voice to the mandate voters provided to the UPFA at the 2015 general election in which many loyal SLFP members felt abandoned when the party joined the UNP-led government.
The Sri Lanka People's Front, commonly known by its Sinhalese name Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP), is a political party in Sri Lanka. Previously a minor political party known as the Sri Lanka National Front (SLNF) and Our Sri Lanka Freedom Front (OSLFF), it was relaunched in 2016 as the SLPP and became the home for members of the United People's Freedom Alliance loyal to its former leader Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Parliamentary elections were held in Sri Lanka on 5 August 2020 to elect 225 members to Sri Lanka's 16th Parliament. 16,263,885 people were eligible to vote in the election, 31.95% of whom were young voters.
Presidential elections were held in Sri Lanka on 16 November 2019. The incumbent President Maithripala Sirisena's term of office would have ended on 9 January 2020. This was the first presidential election in Sri Lanka where no sitting president, prime minister or opposition leader ran for president. Gotabaya Rajapaksa won the election in a landslide victory, defeating his main opponent Sajith Premadasa.
 Sri Lankan presidential elections | |
|---|---|
| Direct elections | |
| Indirect elections | |
| Presidential | |
|---|---|
| Parliamentary | |
| Provincial | |
| Local | |
| Referendums | |
| ||
| Life and politics |  | |
| Electoral history | ||
| Family |
| |
| Related | ||
| ||
| Life and politics |  | |
| Electoral history | ||
| Family |
| |
| Related | ||
